The Seattle Times Endorses No Labels — Refers to The RP’s Appearance on The Daily Show

The Seattle Times was watching The RP on The Daily Show last week.  Indeed, they mention the appearance as an illustration of the problem of hyper-partisanship and polarization in our system:

Some will glance at the list and liken No Labels’ mission to a bunch of kumbaya ho-hum, but something’s gotta give. If the two main parties in this country can’t work together, we need an independent force to shake things up. I’m not saying we should do away with the Democrats and the Republicans; I’m saying citizens should encourage them to use No Labels as a basis for building consensus and compromise.

On last Thursday’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, correspondent Al Madrigal “reported” on gridlock in America and interviewed a No Labels co-founder about the group’s 12-point plan. The fake newsman challenged the virtues of those ideas by taking us to “a magical land of no gridlock.” He goes to Arizona, where Republicans have a super majority in both chambers of the Legislature and have passed a series of controversial bills.

Watch. It’s really silly, but the underlying message is serious.

In Madrigal’s faux news world, we’re presented with two extremes: gridlock —  government inaction that’s symptomatic of parties seeking to tip the balance of power — or one-party domination.

We’re better-served by having something in the middle.

Since the make-up of the U.S. Congress is relatively balanced between Republicans and Democrats right now, I can’t think of a better time for lawmakers to set aside party labels and take tentative steps to re-gain the public’s trust.

Read the full editorial here.